ADVICE: HOW-TO...
                      Learn About The WPA (Works Progress Administration)
                                    Cook County, Illinois

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Information contributed for use in Cook County ILGenWeb (from Cook-Co-L mail-list)
        with permission from original submitters
        by Angel Jacobsen-Shweika (CookILGW@jacobsen-shweika.com), July 1999

(multiple items in this submission)


WHAT WAS THE WPA ?
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The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 
In 1939, the program was renamed the Works Project Administration under allagations of
mismanagement, and abuse charges of the programs' funds led to a reduction in Congressional 
appropriations. Strikes by workers proven unsuccessful. World War II provided many jobs, and by 
1943 the WPA expired. It was a work program for the unemployed during the Depression. The
project existed for eight years and employed 8,500,000 people at a cost of $11 billion. 

The program had many branches that specialized in the humanities area. The Federal Arts Project, 
the Federal Writers Project, and the Federal Theater Project were established to give everybody a
way to work. 

Workers in the WPA would earn any where from $15-$90 a month. The average salary was $54.33 a month. 

Over the years the WPA produced 651,000 miles of road, 125,110 public buildings, 78,000 bridges, 
8,000 parks and 800 airports. 

The WPA brought many new opportunities to ethnic and minority groups. Many blacks found new 
employment. Many women and older children were given jobs also. 

The Work Project Administration ended its operation on June 30, 1943, because most of the 
unemployment was reduced. Although the WPA gave many wonderful jobs and opportunities to many
unemployed people, it was still criticized. Some people said it was a waste and that there was 
lack of planning. In the beginning it was also criticized because many people thought it was 
created to get people to join the Democratic Party. 

(thanks to Maureen M. for providing this info)

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"The most exhaustive attempt to compile a list of available vital records in the U.S. was made 
by the federal government's Works Progress Administration (WPA) as part of the Historical 
Records Survey projects in the late 1930s and early 1940s.  

Forty states participated in this program.  The participants included all states except Alaska
(not then a state), Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii (not then a state), Maine, Maryland, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Vermont.  Each participating state published, as a result of 
the project, inventories or guides to the vital statistics records available for the various 
counties, cities, and towns within its boundaries and told where and how there were filed.  

A "WPA List of Vital Statistical Records" issued in 1943 shows the publications for each
of the participating states."

This info was taken from "The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy" by Val D. Greenwood.

(provided by Angel Jacobsen-Shweika)


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for more on-line reading about this topic, 

  Go to:   http://www.ancestry.com/magazine/articles/wpa.htm
  For:
  "The WPA: 60-Year-Old Investment Still Yields High Dividends"
  Ancestry Magazine, May/Jun 1995, Volume 13, Number 3  
  by Loretto Dennis Szucs 
 
OR

  Read from the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: AMERICAN MEMORY PAGES
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  Go to:   http://rs6.loc.gov/wpaintro/wpafwp.html
  For:
  "WPA Life Histories About the Federal Writers' Project"
  --AND--
  Go to:   http://rs6.loc.gov/wpaintro/ilcat.html
  For:
  WPA Life Histories from Illinois

OR

  Go to:   http://www.bethany-schools.org/wpa.htm
  For:
  "THE W.P.A.: 1915-1935"
  Bethany Grade School, Rediscovers the U.S.: 1915-1935



(thanks to Jackie K. for providing this info)




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Contact Angel Jacobsen-Shweika (CookILGW@jacobsen-shweika.com).
        ©1999, Angel Jacobsen-Shweika